Update # 1

Austria Travel Blog

As expected Austria is very beautiful and traveling with Vikas, Patrick, and Jeff is nothing short of an adventure. Five minutes after we got onto the autobahn in our car, someone sprayed hand sanitizer on my head as I am driving. Good times:)

We're keeping a running tab of all things (intelligent, unintelligent, intelligible and unintelligible) being said on the trip. So far it's mostly unintelligent but intelligible. Then again, we haven't had a big night out yet.

The beer has been flowing plentifully. My favorite has been the German Augustiner (http://www.augustiner-braeu.de/augustiners/html/en/index.html) which we had along with amazing wurst, sauerkraut, and schnitzel in Innsbruck. We also saw our first castle...one of many no doubt.

The roommates are all great. I get made fun of incessantly...no surpirse there. Patrick has already bled once. Vikas' snoring sounds either like a turboprop plane trying to start or a python choking on a small animal. Although at the moment Jeff's snoring is rivaling Vikas'. I've been told I also snore. Until I get hard proof no dice.

Salzburg was pretty awesome. The first day we visited the Werfen Ice Caves (http://www.eisriesenwelt.at/site/content/CB_ContentShow.php?coType=home〈=EN). These are caves inside the Alps where water seeps in to form really cool ice structures. We climbed a solid 2 km that day.

Today we spent walking Salzburg in the first day of sunny weather since we arrived. We saw the Hohensalzburg (the large castle in Salzburg) and Hellbrun (a palace right outside of Salzburg which has trick water fountains). The whole grounds of the castle is rigged with water spouts and the tour guides regularly turn them on and off throughout the tour. Good times:)

After a dinner that consisted of things we bought in the market, including a 2 pound block of cheese (so good), we did a tour of Salzburg's bars and pubs. Heading off to bed with a 4 hour drive to Croatia tomorrow.